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Study Finds 12% of Internet Users Fall for Spam

Posted 07/16/09 at 09:06:41 AM  by Paul Lilly

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Ever wonder why your inbox gets inundated with spam on a regular basis, even though you've never once clicked on a solicitation to enlarge your favorite body part? The answer is simple - while you might not be falling for the unwelcome sales pitches, there are plenty of others who are.

According to a new study by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), 12 percent of Internet users have wanted to pay for a product or service advertised by email. To come up with that number, the MAAWG interviewed 800 U.S. residents by phone and Internet without an email address managed by a corporate IT staff. Two-thirds claimed to be very or somewhat experienced with Internet security, while most of the participants used a spam filter.

Even though 82 percent said they were aware of bots and botnets, less than half (48 percent) said they never click on spam email.

"Although a small percentage of the computing population, these numbers still earn a significant enough return on investment to support a booming spam-driving underground economy," wrote MAAWG.

COMMENTS:7
TAGS: Internet, spam, study
COMMENTS
avatarI saw a book at Walwart, How

Submitted by MRrelabled on Fri, 07/17/2009 - 6:06pm

I saw a book at Walwart, How not to be a Dummy for Dummies. 

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avatarMy dad found a solution to

Submitted by Wildebeast on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 7:49pm

My dad found a solution to SPAM... He blocked ALL e-mails from Yahoo hotmail accounts.

Of course, one of my brothers and myself use Yahoo hotmail for our primary addresses. (Another brother uses it as his back-up account) ... So the second part of my dad's solution was a Yahoo hotmail account, for Him! :D

(Yes, IMO, he accomplished almost nothing.)

There's got to be some kind of solution for the not-tech-savvy people though, that doesn't include paying a software company an idiotic amount. It's SPAM --it frequently lists the "return address" as the same as the received address. (That's not something that you need to pay $10/month for software to sort out...)

I guess this crap is part of why Macs sell...

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avatarDuh!

Submitted by kevjohn on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 9:25am

Of course people fall for SPAM. Why else would they keep doing it if it didn't work?

Surprised that the rate is that high though. But I figured even at 2-3% of idio... err, people clicking on it the spammers would be coming out way ahead.

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avatarI'm more shocked that people

Submitted by lunchbox73 on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 9:23am

I'm more shocked that people actually eat SPAM. Have you ever tried that stuff?? Ew....

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avatarYou have to remember that

Submitted by Digital-Storm on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 7:40am

You have to remember that 12% of the internet users are retarded too.

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avatarThat must be your favorite

Submitted by gatorXXX on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 8:23am

That must be your favorite word....retarded....

They are not retarded, but simply PC and internet challenged. Remember, you were one of those..."retarded" people when you first started to use a PC.

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avatarno. really?  12%? sad. i'm

Submitted by stige on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 7:03am

no.

really?  12%?

sad.

i'm happily in the 88% majority.

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